Pledge Now!

From the President

Our partners at the Golisano Foundation are once again challenging the Rochester community to spread the word to “End the R-Word”. The campaign, which has become one of the largest in the nation for a single region, is part of the national Spread the Word to End the Word project. It asks people to take a stand against using the R-word, "retard" or "retarded," by taking the pledge at http://www.r-word.org/.

WXXI is proud to take the pledge and we encourage you to do so. You can learn more about the campaign by tuning in to AM 1370, WRUR-FM 88.5 or WEOS-FM 89.5 (Geneva) for Connections with Evan Dawson on Tuesday, March 3 at 12 p.m. (and repeats at 9pm that evening) when his guests will be Ann Costello, Director of the B. Thomas Golisano Foundation; Onolee Stephan, MPH Director of the Community Health Program for Special Olympics, Stephanie Straka, AADMD dental student; and Catherine Lewis, Assistant Director of the Rochester Center for Community Leadership at the University of Rochester. Also, on Wednesday, March 4 at 5:30 p.m. on WXXI-TV Homework Hotline presents a special segment about the campaign when Rob Mitchell from Special Olympics and Unified Sports joins us in studio to talk more about how we can all end the R word.

WXXI’s on-going MOVE TO INCLUDE initiative is proud to support the “End the R Word” campaign. MOVE TO INCLUDE is a partnership between WXXI and the Golisano Foundation designed to promote inclusion for people with intellectual and physical disabilities. To learn more, listeners can visit movetoinclude.org.

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